The Russian government has been working to produce a sovereign internet to disconnect from the rest of the world. The idea was to limit the entire population of Russia to a countrywide intranet that is restricted from accessing the global internet.
They have now successfully tested the idea, disconnecting the country from the rest of the world for security and independence.
The Russian government hasn’t provided any technical details on how they made it possible, but they did reveal testing different scenarios, one of which involved a foreign cyberattack.
However, in simple words, the initiative restricts access points in the Russian Internet (RuNet) that allow connection with the global internet. All traffic trying to access the external internet is rerouted to Russian counterparts of the same website. Social media website VK, for example, is a Russain alternative for Facebook.
Russian Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and telecommunication companies will need to limit RuNet to the country’s borders and the government will have complete surveillance over it.
Alexei Sokolov, deputy head of the Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media said:
It turned out that, in general, that both authorities and telecom operators are ready to effectively respond to possible risks and threats and ensure the functioning of the Internet and the unified telecommunication network in Russia.
He added that the test results will be presented to President Vladimir Putin next year.